Blogineering

One of the reasons that you should choose a hosted WordPress blog over a WordPress.com blog are plugins.  Plugins are small pieces of software that you can integrate to your hosted WordPress blog. Most plugins have a specific purpose.  For example, a statistics plugin monitors the number of page views, number of unique visitors, and other related information about your blog. On the other hand, a back up plugin backs up your blog periodically. The short video below discusses more about the basics of plugins.

There are about 20,000 plugins located at WordPress Plugin Directory.  Some are paid and some are free.

One of the common feelings running through every newcomer in blogging is the enthusiasm – over-enthusiasm, actually, to go on and create as much content as possible to jumpstart their blogs. This is because a lot of them are already “counting the chicks that would hatch from the eggs”.

Indeed, blogging can change lives. Others, meanwhile, have used their blogs as platforms to promote their services. Definitely blogging opens a lot of opportunities for anyone who has committed themselves into it. Others in fact have become millionaires. That is why once a blogger has set up his mind to create a blog or website, he is very eager to start as soon as possible.

However, after several weeks of setting up the blog and everything, and then starting to write your content on a regular basis, you will eventually come to realize that what you initially thought of blogging is very, very different to what you are experiencing right now.

First and foremost, you will surely, at one point or another, run out of ideas to write about. This is the most common pitfall in blogging. It’s like having a writer’s block. But the funny thing is, there is definitely a lot to talk about. You just won’t know how or where to start again. Therefore in blogging, it is definitely important for you to have fun doing it. Because if it is starting to be a chore, then it will take the excitement out of you, and it will feel like you are blogging just for the sake of having content in your site. There should always be room for fun. Read the rest of this entry →

A lot of people nowadays maintain blogs. Initially, it is the web version of diaries. But with the openness of the internet, blogging has evolved into something quite beneficial for bloggers—be it for personal, social, or business purposes.

For now, we will focus on the personal benefits of blogging.

1.       Improves your writing skill

In blogging, you have to be a good writer to be able to turn out quality posts. If you are not that confident of your writing, blogging will help you improve your article crafting skills over time because not only will you write, you will also be compelled to read a lot of materials online to get your ideas from as well as to visit other blogs to build your community. Such activities will not only enhance your vocabulary skills, you will also get bits and pieces of how to write really good content for your blog.

2.       Expands your knowledge base

Because you will need to read lots of articles – blogs, news, and definitely, articles from Wikipedia – you will definitely increase your knowledge base because of the amount of information you come across. Blogging will also help you become a better researcher because oftentimes, you need to have a good grasp of what you will be writing about.

3.       Name and fame in the blogging world

Continuing to write quality posts in your blog will eventually lead to your readers wanting to know more about you, and recommending your good posts to their friends or networks. And because you are writing about your interests on certain subject matters, people will get to see your expertise on that particular subject, and soon your subscriber base who shares the same interests will definitely grow.

4.       Building a network

This is related to Point 3. As people with the same interests get to know more about your blog and your expertise on the subject you are writing about, this will lead to your community or network of other bloggers. You will eventually be opened to the world of other successful bloggers, and know their thoughts, ideas and opinion on your topic.

5.       Motivation

Knowing that people do read your blog posts, and seeing their wonderful comments or constructive criticisms, will really push you more to write more on the subject and deepen your understanding or knowledge of the subject you are writing about. You will be motivated to write more and connect more with them.

6.       Income

Definitely, a lot of bloggers out there have monetized their blogs after a certain period of time of maintaining them. In fact, the potential income part is one of the reasons some people do jump to blogging. But of course this is not easy; you have to establish yourself first in the blogging world, and you have to make sure your articles are really relevant to your readers. This way, they will continue to visit your blog, and after a while, start interacting more with you through your blog. Eventually, as you gain the name in your subject matter in the blogging world, potential advertisers in the same space would get to notice your blog, and as they begin to feel confident, advertisements/sponsorships could begin to come in. But of course there are no shortcuts to this. You have to religiously update and maintain your blog, interact with your readers, and build your community.

One of the challenges that face bloggers after the launch phase is building a community. Of course, we’ve talked about some of the things that you need to do within the first three months (LINK) of your blogging journey. However, writing lots of posts alone cannot “get you there”; you need a community that will, in a way, support you while growing your blog.

So what’s a community? In blogging, a suitable explanation is a group of people with the same interest, who visit and interact with you on your blog by posting comments and, in a way, helping you promote your blog to other people or bloggers in their own networks.

A community builds up in the long run anyway, but of course you should not wait for that long a period to have your own group of bloggers sharing the same interests. There are a few ways that you can do to make sure that people would find your blog, start commenting on your posts, and eventually interact with each other through your blog.

Here are some tips on how to do just that:

1. Post comments in other blogs

The first way of starting to build your community is by commenting on other blogs. Of course, you have to make sure that most blogs you would be commenting on are on the same, or related topic as your blog, to make sure that you have “something in common”. Although of course you could post comments on other types of blogs, but the odds of them interacting with you and answering your comments is higher when you are on the same “wavelength”.

Comments could come in the form of:

- Responses to posts

- Questions related to posts

- Reaction to other people’s comments

2. Invite readers to share their reactions and opinion

Apart from just commenting on other bloggers posts, you should, at the end of your posts, pose interesting questions that will entice readers to give their comments. If people did comment on your posts, be sure to thank them and, if they posted their own questions, make sure that you will respond to their questions.

3. Create interactive tools

You could create polls and, sometimes – if you have some interesting stuff that you could freely give away as prizes – contests that will entice your readers to do more when visiting your blog.

4. Invite for contributed posts

Another way of getting people to start doing more for your blog is by inviting them to submit contributed posts. Apart from building your community, this will also add fresh content – from a fresh perspective – in your blog. At the same way, you should also return the favor by proactively offering to contribute posts on other blogs.

Doing these simple things is one way of promoting your blog, adding more content to your blog, getting people to do more when visiting your blog, and eventually building your own community.

We have learned quite a lot about WordPress.com and free blogging.  In this post we are going to discuss about self-hosted blogging.

Free-hosted blogging is a good way to familiarize yourself with the environment of your platform, but if you want to get serious, we strongly suggest that you transfer to a self-hosted blogging.

What’s the difference? Read the rest of this entry →